Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Bows => Topic started by: wizardgoat on February 14, 2014, 02:33:11 am
-
My wife was working on her second bow, it took a bad
Hinge and exploded. She's feeling pretty discouraged and
upset, even though I tell her really experienced people
break bows.
Anyone out there willing to admit how many bows they've
broken to make her feel not so bad? Haha
-
Well, I'm happy to say I've never broken a bow in my life.
Now, I also haven't built one yet either, but don't tell her, shhhhh >:D
-
More than 5, less than 20, don't rightly know and it didn't concern me much, bows break
-
2
-
Thirteen, mostly poor early attempts at board bows :o
-
I have had 3 bows explode at draw...all yew (yew is dangerous stuff). I have discarded countless bow because they began developing frets or hinges...so I rarely get to the point were they break.
Cheers
-
This is the most viewed entry on my blog.
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/warbow-explodes.html (http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/warbow-explodes.html)
I think people look at it when they need cheering up!
There are several other breakages on my blog... I show it warts and all.
Here's another ;D
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/tricky-tillering.html (http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/tricky-tillering.html)
Del
-
That was awesome Del. Sorry for your loss... but you seemed OK about it :P
-
Just remember - "If Ya aren't breakin', Ya aren't makin' ". Happens to all of Us - Bob.
-
Whoops... There goes another :o, albeit an experimental bow of rotten wood! :laugh:
http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/rot-or-not.html (http://bowyersdiary.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/rot-or-not.html)
Del
-
Only had a few explode but have a large amount of bow shaped kindling in the corner of my shop.
Most chrystal ridden or soggy curshed bellies. I should cut em all up for firewood, one day.
-
Yeah, bow making is just a way of producing high quality, well seasoned, nicely finished kindling.
My Bis Sis says my Yew kindling is the tops :laugh:
Del
-
More than I care to remember, at least 5 or 6 before I got my first shooter so she still has a ways to go to catch me. I guess for a beginner that is the hardest thing to get over,you have some much time and heart in a piece of wood and it just breaks your heart when it breaks, some quit and some hard heads like most of us just get back on that horse and try again. ;) :)I tell them to NEVER fall in love with a piece of wood,it's just a stick till it shoots arrows. ;) :) It bothers me much more now to see someone else break one[especially a beginner ] than when I do, I figured out that is part of it. :) :) Good luck on the next one. :)
Pappy
-
I broke 8 when trying to learn on my own...not fun.
-
Like Pappy says its just a stick till it shoots arrows, even then most of mine are still just a stick :laugh: :laugh:
Stuff breaks !
If it helps any tell her I have a friend that broke three bows last year and they were not just sticks they were all high dollar manufactured arrow slingers , one a coveted Bear take down that did not break in a limb
If the folks doing stuff with all the so called best of materials have some breaking why should we get upset with breaking a stick ( even though I still get upset myself )
The challenge is most of the fun anyway !
Guy
-
Taking it to the other extreme, if I havent broken a bow in a while then I am not trying anwywhere near hard enough.
-
I've been making and breaking since '89. I have no idea how many I've broken but it is a lot. LOL.
14 before I got a hunting weight shooter.
Every broken bow is a learning experience.
Ask your wife to read my post and look at the the signature portion on the bottom.
Jawge
-
Man, I even broke a hickory bow about three years ago. It was a sapling and had some weird kinks I didn't know how to handle then. But yeah... Breaking is part of it.
-
I would guess about 20, not sure as don't keep track, two or three exploding bows, the rest were bows that I sold or gave to people that cracked. I replaced all the bows that belonged to other people. The post office broke a couple for me as well.
-
Almost as many broken as I have not broken!
-
Pretty new at this craft also. 1st bow broke took about 3 weeks before I was ready to depart with my stick. Now I'm onto my 2nd.
-
I have token my fair share. I am relatively new to this, so it happens. I just broke one around Christmas for the trade, had to go with plan B. The most important thing is to try and figure out why it broke and avoid that on you next one :).
-
6 broken i think,i dont really count.
As i got better at judging wood and what to do with it i have broken less but it still happens.
-
In the Red Oak Board Bow Trade last year, I managed to break two and build two that came in W A Y underweight before I got one that was a winner and worthy of the trade. I went into the trade pretty certain that building a board bow was going to be trivial since I had built many in the past and several good stave bows. It happens. It is just kinda the more meloncholy part of the fun.
...and broken bow limb can be fashioned into great Atlatl's! ...or back scratchers! ..or camp spoon handles! ...or tip overlays for other bows!
OneBow
-
thanks everyone for your replies. We read them all this morning, and i think it took some of the sting
away! time to move on to the next one!
-
I enjoy the process so much that I don't even think in terms of broken bows. The bows that break increase the intensity of the experience on the ones that don't break. When one breaks I tend to go back over my steps until I feel satisfied that I know why it broke. Maybe underdesigned for what I was asking out of it, maybe bad piece of wood or improper thickneses on a back or belly I glued up. Most of the time I can get a pretty good idea and it gives me something to watch for on the next build. I really enjoy the build and the tension and intensity of that last few inches of draw. Thats why I came up with the no set tillering tecnique, I get to have some intensity even earlier in the build.
-
3-5 or so and at twice that many with hinges. The ratio of broken bows to successful shooters gets a lot better after the first 10-20 bows. I haven't broken a bow in a while (although I know it could happened any time -- no one is immune :)). Practice in stave selection and tillering is a big help. Don't know how many I've made, but its been about 12 years and I've made 5 to 15 a year. Probably somewhere around 100 bows.
gabe
-
I think I have broken 8. I just broke a sweet rocky mountain maple d bow two weeks ago. My son likes to stand way to close the bow when I am tillering it with a pulley. I keep telling him to get back. Well this time he was about 4 feet away when it exploded. He finally go to see why I don't want him near the tillering tree. He doesn't go near it now.
I don't lose many that make it to the stage where I can shoot arrows out of them. I do as much on the tillering board as I can, so that is where i break them.
Patrick
-
broke one recently..i wasnt paying attention...could have put my eye out...wear eye protection ..go slow.
-
I've broke more than I could count...even if I took my boots off. :o ::) It usually don't bother me too much. The only ones I get upset over are the staves that I got from someone else or a species that i don't have easy access to. You definitely learn as much or more from the ones that fail as you do with the successes. Keep your chin up and keep at it. I've found that a little struggle and strife along the way helps to enrich the experience when you do finally attain your goal. Good luck! Josh
-
the fact is if you over build and play it safe you won't break to many, as you get more adventurous and start pushing it with design and such you will break more bows till you get it figured out, short bows , long draws=more kindling ;)
-
Not the best stats here ::)
In the 2 + years I been at this I have broken at least 6 with only one minor injury. I have completed about 13-14 bows. The one I snapped that got me back is still being worked on, just about 6" shorter and highly modified from it's original design. Will post some pics of her soon.
-
Ones I consider broken 7, ones that actually snapped and were compleatly unusable 5 and all but one of those was before I really knew what I was doing .
-
I've broken 2 and had to retire a 3rd due to compression fractures on the belly, all in my first 10 bows.
-
I repaired most of my broken bows by adding a new limb, too much work in them to send them to the burn pile. I gave all the repaired bows to newbie trad archers to help get them started, I made new bows for the original owners.
Here is a beautiful copperhead backed broken bow getting a new limb.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v181/ekrewson/bow%20making/newcopperheadlimb.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/ekrewson/media/bow%20making/newcopperheadlimb.jpg.html)
-
I tend to push the design limitations a little bit if it's a bow for me. If it's for someone else I will go with what i know works. That being said. When I 'm making a bow for me I break probably a third of them. At first I was a little upset about it but I think it depends on your bow building goals. One of the things that I really don't want to do is to overbuild bows. I don't feel like that represent s the bows potential properly. And I don't think you learn as much from an over built bow.
I have more failures now than when I first started, when I look at those first bows and they are way over built. If that's what it takes to get a few working bows under your belt then go for it but for me that didn't last long.
The trick for most people is probably to find the balance between under and over built.
Mark
-
Well I have broken at least 5 or 6 so far. But also got some shooters too.I was shooting one while it broke punched myself in the face and it bout blacked my eye. They guys I was shooting with got a laugh at first. Then my brother was sad I broke my bow. He gets more upset than I do when I break one. It is only a stick till I get to shoot it a few hundred times then its a bow. You will get a shooter just keep at it at least you are trying. Good luck on your next one looking forward to seeing pics of your first bow.
-
I get a kick when you have a few guys over who don't build bows but like to watch. When one comes apart on the tiller tree they all sit silent with solemn faces, waiting for my reaction. Sometimes I bleed it for a minuyte or two just to mess with them.
-
Ya, these days I get over it pretty fast. Try to figure out what went wrong and then starting dreaming of the next rocket launcher. I have had a few explode in a pretty spectacular fashion, one of them was a BL at full draw while I was shooting it. At about the 20th shot it just blew apart.... I never found the string, I think it may have landed on the roof of my house.
Mark